Wednesday, December 15, 2010

BBQ Pork and Coleslaw

This is another recipe The Good Husband saw and wanted to try. So far he has been pretty good about picking out winners.

We had this right after Halloween, when the weather was just started to hint at the coming winter and we were longing for something that reminded us of warmer days.

This dish was both easy and tasty. The BBQ pulled pork was easy enough to make. It was the coleslaw that really made this dish. I failed making coleslaw before, so this was a huge improvement.

I normally don't like my foods to touch, so I was also shocked at how much I liked it considering I would never allow my coleslaw to touch my sandwich on my plate normally.

I did modify the original recipe as well. The original called for BBQ chicken, but we had pork chops in the fridge that needed to be used. I also didn't make them "sliders" since 1.) I hate how the term is used too often and incorrectly in the food world and 2.) I like the big kaiser buns.

Ingredients:
Slaw
½ cup mayonnaise
½ cup chopped green onion
2 tablespoons dill pickle juice (from a jar of pickles)
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
2 tablespoons sugar
½ teaspoon coarse salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 (16-ounce) package shredded cole slaw mix

Pork
1 cup bottled barbecue sauce
3 tablespoons cider vinegar
3 cups roughly shredded pork
Kaiser buns

Instructions:
~For coleslaw, whisk all ingredients together, except coleslaw mix, in a large bowl. Add coleslaw mix and toss to coat. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

~For shredded pork, cook pork in slow cooker on low for 6-8 hours or until fork tender. Shred. Combine barbecue sauce, vinegar and pork and stir to combine.

~To serve, place pork on bun bottoms, spoon coleslaw on top, top with remaining bun and serve.

recipe modified from: Relish Magazine

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Last Farmer's Market

The last Farmer's Market of the season was Halloween weekend. So where the hell have I been for a month and a half?

Well, I finally finished my graduate semester from hell. Want to know everything about tax increment financing or macro and micro theories of nonprofit organizations and how they apply to board management? Yeah I didn't think so. But that's what I have been doing for the last month and a half. But the semester is behind me and while I wait for my final grades (here's hoping to two As), I promise I will update the blog more.

So in the spirit of updating - a recap on the last Farmer's Market of the season.

This is the most hyped FM of the season. There are chef demonstrations, live entertainment, costume contests for both kids and dogs and an all around party.

So I took my little hippo and headed to the market.

We saw Indian corn and bittersweet.

And live entertainment, which had to have been freezing since it was in the low 40s that day.

Veggies, of course.

Chef demonstrations. I think this was some kind of apple pancake but midwest people go apeshit for free food and as such, The Good Daughter and I couldn't make our way through the overalls and flannel to get any.

More live entertainment that was just loud enough to confirm I am getting too old.

More veggies.

I would have taken photos of the costume contest but after wandering around the FM for an hour, waiting for the start of the kid's contest, TGD had a huge meltdown and we had to leave before the dog contest. Since she was in the first group in the kid's costume contest, I was working on coaxing her across the stage and not on taking photos.

She didn't win. In fact, all the winners had some very cute, but homemade costumes. If that's what it takes to win, I don't have the time or the creativity. So it looks like we will be Halloween losers. Oh well.